How to buy Westlake Chemical Corporation stock

Westlake Chemical Corporation is a specialty chemicals business based in the US. Westlake Chemical Corporation shares (WLK) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Westlake Chemical Corporation employs 9,220 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around 0.00.

Westlake Chemical Corporation share price

Use our graph to track the performance of WLK stocks over time.

Westlake Chemical Corporation shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2021-04-23.

52-week range	$35.46 - $97.80
50-day moving average	$91.29
200-day moving average	$82.13
Wall St. target price	$97.18
PE ratio	36.6055
Dividend yield	$1.065 (1.17%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	$2.56

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Is it a good time to buy Westlake Chemical Corporation stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Westlake Chemical Corporation by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Is Westlake Chemical Corporation under- or over-valued?

Valuing Westlake Chemical Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Westlake Chemical Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's P/E ratio

Westlake Chemical Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 37x. In other words, Westlake Chemical Corporation shares trade at around 37x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's PEG ratio

Westlake Chemical Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.59. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Westlake Chemical Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's EBITDA

Westlake Chemical Corporation's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $1.2 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Westlake Chemical Corporation's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Westlake Chemical Corporation financials

Revenue TTM	$7.5 billion
Operating margin TTM	6.38%
Gross profit TTM	$1 billion
Return on assets TTM	2.21%
Return on equity TTM	5.75%
Profit margin	4.4%
Book value	$47.27
Market capitalisation	$12.6 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Westlake Chemical Corporation shares

There are currently 2.6 million Westlake Chemical Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as Westlake Chemical Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 476.1% up from 445,758 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Westlake Chemical Corporation shares can be evaluated.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Westlake Chemical Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 927023.8267148). Westlake Chemical Corporation's SIR currently stands at 2.77. In other words for every 100,000 Westlake Chemical Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2770 shares are currently held short.

However Westlake Chemical Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable Westlake Chemical Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Westlake Chemical Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Westlake Chemical Corporation shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0777% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Westlake Chemical Corporation shares, roughly 78 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Westlake Chemical Corporation.

Find out more about how you can short Westlake Chemical Corporation stock.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Westlake Chemical Corporation.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 43.31

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Westlake Chemical Corporation's overall score of 43.31 (as at 12/31/2018) is pretty weak – landing it in it in the 80th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Westlake Chemical Corporation is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Westlake Chemical Corporation's environmental score

Environmental score: 28.32/100

Westlake Chemical Corporation's environmental score of 28.32 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's social score

Social score: 9.87/100

Westlake Chemical Corporation's social score of 9.87 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's governance score

Governance score: 18.12/100

Westlake Chemical Corporation's governance score puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's controversy score

Controversy score: 2/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Westlake Chemical Corporation scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Westlake Chemical Corporation has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Westlake Chemical Corporation was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	43.31
Total ESG percentile	79.76
Environmental score	28.32
Environmental score percentile	9
Social score	9.87
Social score percentile	9
Governance score	18.12
Governance score percentile	9
Level of controversy	2

Westlake Chemical Corporation share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 47.25% of net profits

Recently Westlake Chemical Corporation has paid out, on average, around 47.25% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.18% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Westlake Chemical Corporation shareholders could enjoy a 1.18% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Westlake Chemical Corporation's case, that would currently equate to about $1.065 per share.

While Westlake Chemical Corporation's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Westlake Chemical Corporation may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 15 March 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 28 February 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares ever split?

Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 18 March 2014. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Westlake Chemical Corporation shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Westlake Chemical Corporation shares which in turn could have impacted Westlake Chemical Corporation's share price.

Westlake Chemical Corporation share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $35.4597 up to $97.8. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Westlake Chemical Corporation's is 1.4699. This would suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Westlake Chemical Corporation overview

Westlake Chemical Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets basic chemicals, vinyls, polymers, and building products worldwide. It operates through two segments, Vinyls and Olefins. The Vinyls segment provides specialty and commodity polyvinyl chloride (PVC), vinyl chloride monomers, ethylene dichloride, chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated derivative, and ethylene products. This segment also manufactures and sells PVC compounds and building products fabricated from PVC, including residential siding, trim and molding, pipe and fittings for various water, sewer and industrial applications, profiles for windows and doors, decking products, films for various inflatables, wall covering tapes, roofing applications, and composite roof tiles. The Olefins segment offers polyethylene, styrene monomers, and various ethylene co-products, as well as sells propylene, crude butadiene, pyrolysis gasoline, and hydrogen products. Westlake Chemical Corporation offers its products to a range of customers, including chemical processors, plastics fabricators, small construction contractors, municipalities, and supply warehouses in various consumer and industrial markets, such as flexible and rigid packaging, automotive products, coatings, water treatment, refrigerants, and residential and commercial construction, as well as other durable and non-durable goods. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Westlake Chemical Corporation is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 74.154% of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares are held by insiders and 26.789% by institutions.

• How many people work for Westlake Chemical Corporation?

  Latest data suggests 9,220 work at Westlake Chemical Corporation.

• When does the fiscal year end for Westlake Chemical Corporation?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Westlake Chemical Corporation based?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's address is: 2801 Post Oak Boulevard, Houston, TX, United States, 77056

• What is Westlake Chemical Corporation's ISIN number?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's international securities identification number is: US9604131022

• What is Westlake Chemical Corporation's CUSIP number?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 960413102